Vagabond Journey’s Top 10 Stories of 2014

It’s time to put the cap on another year here at Vagabond Journey. It’s our 10th New Year’s Eve, and it’s time to look back and reflect a little upon the year that just paste before looking forward into the next one. Our team of traveling writers published 296 articles from six continents and dozens of countries on the site this year, making it one of our best yet. As we now have so many writers publishing many types of stories from many places, I decided to try something new and make a list of our top articles for the year. So, as the editor in chief, these are my picks for our top ten stories of 2014.

Setting out down a remote Estonian river in an inflatable boat during a rain storm may not have been the best of ideas, but it was probably the surest way to test a long standing theory on Vagabond Journey that the inflatable kayak could be the ultimate travel vehicle.

Throughout my Chinese ghost cities research I often found myself in the temporary camps and defacto villages of China’s floating population: the 200+ million migrant workers. This is what life is like there.

5. What Becomes of China’s Ghost Cities, by Wade Shepard

This story shows where my initial interest in China’s ghost cities began, as well as what these places eventually become.

A brazenly honest, self-sacrificing look at what happens when travels don’t quite go the way they’re planned. We’ve all been here, though few have balls big enough to retell the whole story with such clarity and self-criticism.

2. Snakes and Satans, or the Perils that Befall the Modern Vagabond, by Bad Mike

This is real life vagabonding in the 21st century. Bad Mike finds himself adrift in the isles of Indonesia without a penny, hardly a hope, but with a fervent lust to experience the world in the raw.

The thirst for exploration and the drive to get far off the tourist map lands Lawrence in the deserts of Mauritania, where he finds that real adventure is definitely not what the tour companies are selling. Danger and raw humanity abound, and by the end he sees a fleeting glimpse of why we travel.

Wade Shepard is the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. He has been traveling the world since 1999, through 90 countries. He is the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China, and contributes to The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. Wade Shepard has written 3541 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

Navigate

About Wade Shepard

I’m an itinerant writer who has been traveling the world since 1999, through 90 countries. I wrote Ghost Cities of China, a book which chronicles the two years that I spent in China’s new cities, and have another book about the New Silk Road coming out soon. I’m a regular contributor to Forbes, The Guardian, and the South China Morning Post, and I have been featured on BBC World, VICE, NPR Morning Edition, CNBC Squawk Box, CBC The Current … This is my personal blog where I share stories from the road that don’t fit in anywhere else. In other words, this is my daily diary, raw and real — it is not edited or even proofread. Subscribe below.